SJTV Guests for December 9th

This Friday we will be speaking with Crystal Leaver with the United Steelworkers and the WA Blue GreenAlliance and Marc Krasnowsky is a former union Steelworker. Among the topics of discusion will be collaboration between the Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, HWy renewable energy is a priority for the Steelworkers, Key campaigns coming up in Washington in 2006, andhy the Steelworkers and other labor and environmental groups targeting Wal-Mart.

Crystal Leaver works with United Steelworkers and the WA Blue Green Alliance. Previously, she was the NW Field Organizer for EnviroCitizen, where she trained college students to win clean energy campaigns. She has also worked with Greenpeace USA, Dogwood Alliance, and SEAC. She is from the opposite end of the country, graduating from the University of Georgia, with a degree in Anthropology. In her other life, she enjoys modern dance, yoga, traveling, and all things crafty.

Marc Krasnowsky is a former union Steelworker, the son of a retired union Steelworker and one of the first members of the Seattle local of the Steelworkers' Associate Member Program. He is the local's delegate to the King County Labor Council. After more than 25 years as a mainstream newspaper reporter and editor, he now serves as communications director for NW Energy Coalition, a non-profit association of unions, environmental groups, consumer advocates, businesses and progressive utilities dedicated to advancing energy efficiency, renewable energy, consumer protection and the restoration of Columbia basin salmon and steelhead stocks. He serves on the executive committee of the Washington Blue-Green Alliance and represents the Coalition on the Apollo-Washington board.

GAO Confirms 2004 Presidential Elections Were Rigged

I checked my email today and found this gem I'd like to share: Enjoy---Marlin

Powerful Government Accountability Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman October 26, 2005

As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.

The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the Government Accountability Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.

The government's lead investigative agency is known for its general incorruptibility and its thorough, in-depth analyses. Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as "conspiracy theories" adds crucial new weight to the case that Team Bush has no legitimate business being in the White House.

Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers (D-MI) asked the GAO to investigate electronic voting machines as they were used during the November 2, 2004 presidential election. The request came amidst widespread complaints in Ohio and elsewhere that often shocking irregularities defined their performance.

According to CNN, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee received "more than 57,000 complaints" following Bush's alleged re-election. Many such concerns were memorialized under oath in a series of sworn statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations conducted in Ohio by the Free Press and other election protection organizations.

The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, "some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes."

The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others, has asserted that "public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush.

Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort, apparently successful, to steal the White House.

Among other things, the GAO confirms that:

1. Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected." In other words, the GAO now confirms that electronic voting machines provided an open door to flip an entire vote count. More than 800,000 votes were cast in Ohio on electronic voting machines, some seven times Bush's official margin of victory.

2. "It was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate." Numerous sworn statements and affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.

3. "Vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level." 3. Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards can easily be done, according to the GAO.

4. The GAO also confirms that access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network. This critical finding confirms that rigging the 2004 vote did not require a "widespread conspiracy" but rather the cooperation of a very small number of operatives with the power to tap into the networked machines and thus change large numbers of votes at will. With 800,000 votes cast on electronic machines in Ohio, flipping the number needed to give Bush 118,775 could be easily done by just one programmer.

5. Access to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user IDs combined with easily guessed passwords. So even relatively amateur hackers could have gained access to and altered the Ohio vote tallies.

6. The locks protecting access to the system were easily picked and keys were simple to copy, meaning, again, getting into the system was an easy matter.

7. One DRE model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary fashion that a power failure on one machine would cause the entire network to fail, re-emphasizing the fragility of the system on which the Presidency of the United States was decided.

8. GAO identified further problems with the security protocols and background screening practices for vendor personnel, confirming still more easy access to the system.

In essence, the GAO study makes it clear that no bank, grocery store or mom & pop chop shop would dare operate its business on a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one on which the 2004 election turned.

The GAO findings are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Far from what election theft skeptics have long asserted, the GAO findings confirm that the electronic network on which 800,000 Ohio votes were cast was vulnerable enough to allow a a tiny handful of operatives -- or less -- to turn the whole vote count using personal computers operating on relatively simple software.

The GAO documentation flows alongside other crucial realities surrounding the 2004 vote count. For example:

The exit polls showed Kerry winning in Ohio, until an unexplained last minute shift gave the election to Bush. Similar definitive shifts also occurred in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, a virtual statistical impossibility.

A few weeks prior to the election, an unauthorized former ES&S voting machine company employee, was caught on the ballot-making machine in Auglaize County

Election officials in Mahoning County now concede that at least 18 machines visibly transferred votes for Kerry to Bush. Voters who pushed Kerry's name saw Bush's name light up, again and again, all day long. Officials claim the problems were quickly solved, but sworn statements and affidavits say otherwise. They confirm similar problems inFranklin County (Columbus). Kerry's margins in both counties were suspiciously low.

A voting machine in Mahoning County recorded a negative 25 million votes for Kerry. The problem was allegedly fixed.

In Gahanna Ward 1B, at a fundamentalist church, a so-called "electronic transfer glitch" gave Bush nearly 4000 extra votes when only 638 people voted at that polling place. The tally was allegedly corrected, but remains infamous as the "loaves and fishes" vote count.

In Franklin County, dozens of voters swore under oath that their vote for Kerry faded away on the DRE without a paper trail.

In Miami County, at 1:43am after Election Day, with the county's central tabulator reporting 100% of the vote - 19,000 more votes mysteriously arrived; 13,000 were for Bush at the same percentage as prior to the additional votes, a virtual statistical impossibility.

In Cleveland, large, entirely implausible vote totals turned up for obscure third party candidates in traditional Democratic African-American wards. Vote counts in neighboring wards showed virtually no votes for those candidates, with 90% going instead for Kerry.

Prior to one of Blackwell's illegitimate "show recounts," technicians from Triad voting machine company showed up unannounced at the Hocking County Board of Elections and removed the computer hard drive.

In response to official information requests, Shelby and other counties admit to having discarded key records and equipment before any recount could take place.

In a conference call with Rev. Jackson, Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney Bob Fitrakis and others, John Kerry confirmed that he lost every precinct in New Mexico that had a touchscreen voting machine. The losses had no correlation with ethnicity, social class or traditional party affiliation---only with the fact that touchscreen machines were used.

In a public letter, Rep. Conyers has stated that "by and large, when it comes to a voting machine, the average voter is getting a lemon - the Ford Pinto of voting technology. We must demand better."

But the GAO report now confirms that electronic voting machines as deployed in 2004 were in fact perfectly engineered to allow a very small number of partisans with minimal computer skills and equipment to shift enough votes to put George W. Bush back in the White House.

Given the growing body of evidence, it appears increasingly clear that's exactly what happened.

GAO Report

Revised 10/27/05

Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, available via http://freepress.org and http://harveywasserman.com. Their What Happened in Ohio?, with Steve Rosenfeld, will be published in Spring, 2006, by New Press.

Why I Love Jim Hightower

One website I frequent the most is Jim Hightower's website http://www.jimhightower.com . He is one of the few Texans that I hold in high regard. This isn't to say that all most Texans are bad people but after having lived in Texas for 17 long years, suffice it to say Texas doesn't attract a lot of enlightened thinkers. Anyway, Jim Hightower is a true man of the people with a common sense approach to life that I find refreshing and undeniable. I found his latest post so important I decided to post it here for those of you who come to this website to see and possibly turn you into a Jim Hightower fan as well. Enjoy.

Is any low too low for Halliburton?

This giant government contractor with tentacles running straight into the White House has previously been caught overcharging U.S. taxpayers and shortchanging U.S. troops for its work in Iraq. But now we learn that Halliburton has been profiting in Iraq by mistreating foreign workers.

By "foreign," I don't mean Iraqis, even though thousands of folks there are desperate for jobs. Instead, I mean impoverished Asian laborers brought by the thousands into Iraq from southern India, Thailand, and the Philippines to work for Halliburton on U.S. bases as cooks, electricians, launderers, custodians, etc. They are mostly 20-somethings, powerless and exploited.

When recruited, most had no idea they were headed for a war zone. Once there, they are branded as TCNs – Third Country Nationals – which is both a derogatory term and an assurance of third class treatment, at best. They are paid a fraction of what other Halliburton workers get, and their meager paychecks are often several months behind, keeping them in debt and in place. They work 12-hour days and are allowed only one day a month off – without pay.

The TCNs are housed in cramped trailers jammed end-to-end with bunk beds. They're not allowed to eat with the Americans, nor do they even get to eat the same food – theirs is shipped in from elsewhere and often is cold and tasteless. They cannot use the internet, the phone center, or the recreation facility. Even though their bases regularly come under attack, TCNs are issued no body armor or helmets.It's bad enough that Halliburton is doing this at all, but it's far worse that it's doing it under our flag, in our name. What must Iraqis and Asians think as they watch how one of our country's most favored corporations treats workers who are non-white and poor?

This is Jim Hightower saying... To learn more, go to the globalization watchdog group, corpwatch: www.corpwatch.org.

Sources: "Iraq isn't land opportunity," Austin American-Statesman,

November 9, 2005

SJTV Guests for Dec. 2nd, 2005

Biodiesel is making a grand entrance onto the alternative fuel scene.

On December second we will have Dan Freeman of Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks and Ballard High School science teacher Noam Gundle of the Wedgewood Biofuels Collective.

They will discuss the alternative fuel movement in the Puget Sound region with emphasis on biodiesel production and availability. We will also be discussing biodiesel expansion potential into the home heating industry.

Please join us the Friday December second at 8:30pm.

Coalition of Revolutionary Thinkers

As I write this, it is early November, 2005, and I am, as well as many others around me, feeling that the ruling class has reached a decisive moment. They are in deep crisis, truthfully, this could be very good, or very bad for the people. That is why in a series of editorials I've written and posted on the SJTV.blogspot.com web site, I've been talking about the need to recognize the severity of our situation, and for us to act decisively to build a movement that has vision and can attract masses of people very rapidly.

I think the people really are waiting for leadership but they are also very demoralized. I get the sense at this time that many people are milling around feeling like the end is coming but they can't really put their finger on when. It's as if we're in a semiconscious slumber, and we know that any minute the alarm clock is going to start ringing, but we just keep tossing and turning, pulling on the sheets, but the knowledge of the fact that we have to get up won't go away and it won't let us sleep. Fundamentally I guess the question really is, will we die in our beds, or will we wake up and begin to feel better and more energized to take on the new day. I guess this metaphor really is just trying to describe that we have to face our situation, though doing so will be the hardest part of our struggle, because ignoring our situation, truthfully, will become impossible.

But these people I refer to are you and me. Us. There are many, many of us who feel the same way, who want to see a better world, who are tired of the injustice, and some of us have been terribly, terribly, wronged by this present world we live in. We, are the ones in bed, and the alarm clock is ticking, and because we know that, we have to get up.
So we need to create something new, something attractive, something very powerful. It needs to come from the heart, it needs to come from truth, and it needs to speak right to the power in a way that is undeniable and axiomatic. It needs to be a movement that is completely and totally people based, there can’t be any divisions within the movement, everyone needs to struggle against those divisions and they need to support each other in the process of overcoming their internal problems. This should be the final movement, the one that binds us all in our connectedness as human beings and to our earth.

We need to pick up this movement vision and carry it out to others.

There is a great opportunity coming in this crises, many people will be forced to question their society in the very near future. We need to develop this movement now!


Coalition of Revolutionary Thinkers:

I am a revolutionary because I have great love for this world and all of its beings.

Through seeing unnecessary injustice and cruelty, I have had a range of emotions and reactions, which have had a variety of results. I have concluded that egalitarian economic and social change is fundamentally necessary to secure a sustainable, loving and cruelty free world.

I also apply this needed change to myself. I must never cease digging into myself, my sexism, racism, classism, consumerism. I have to look inside to my fears and underlying biases, the programming that is embedded into my scrip, my hardwire. This is the truest path in revolution, the making better of self, for the betterment of all.

Some Reasoning on the Current System:

The current forces of power have historically not allowed any true release of their power.
In fact, for at least ten thousand years, those forces historically have used everything within their grasp to defend their control over social, market and military forces.

For this and many reasons, I have concluded that working within their framework of elections won’t get me anywhere fundamentally. I mean, if one reflects the status quo one may rise to a place of privilege, but doing anything outside of the goals and aspirations of the status quo, and one risks to lose all of the privilege one attained, or worse.

Having said that, there is still a need to use the current electoral framework to build a movement for sustainable change, but it is more educational in nature.

There are many among me that feel/think that our current form of “democracy” is fundamentally sound. That is flawed thinking. It is a republic riddled with ways to channel control to the wealthiest lobbyists and influences. It was never set up for anything else.

Any opposition allowed to gain favorable public opinion in the arena of the status quo elections is “allowed” to present an illusion of democracy. This is a way of legitimizing the system, presenting the appearance of debate/opposition, but it is illusory, fraud.

Any gains made within this framework may retain some rights, or certain social gains, but rarely does any ‘gain’ we attain here in the U.S. really help the real victims of this unjust economic system, our brothers and sisters in countries we detachedly refer to as “the third world.”

Many though need to learn that this system is rigged for grassroots failure, and that may require working through the channels of the current electoral process, fraudulent as it is, maybe even to the conclusion of a attaining false power, like electing progressives and having them slandered, framed, jailed, or worse… Whatever the “cause,” they are stifled, blocked, and removed from attaining substantive change. If they somehow attain enough power to change ideals within the system, they have adopted those values that they originally set out to change. Or they are removed.

In any case… This sequence of events would serve the purpose of stripping false democratic illusions bear, and legitimizing the agenda of solutions outside the current electoral framework. But otherwise I feel it wastes our energy from being proactive in building a new society.

We need to Develop a coalition:

People in the Seattle/Puget Sound area who can identify with the idea that we must build a revolutionary movement need to form a new coalition. Initially, it needs to be representative of the existing left wing parties that have existed, some of them, since the 60s, young Anarchists, environmentalists, anti-corporate globalists, and people who became politically active in the run-up to the Iraq war.

These constituencies, collectively have the experience and the resources at this moment to create a structure of organization that can provide some of the basic needs we have in our communities like sustainability projects, food co-ops, collective childcare, alternative children's education, and other things to fill peoples needs. While at the same time, wage a broad propaganda campaign to bring forward the most radical and idealistic viewpoints about where our society should go and how to best face the contradictions that we face now.

Keep it Small:

I can't say how strongly I feel this needs to be a local struggle. We need to find out if we should be neighborhood, city, region, or what. I do know, that the structure that we create needs to be one in which everyone feels and knows that their input is part of the process, and it is easier to accomplish that in smaller structures, especially if we are united in vision.

Stop Being Reactionary:

It's really the time for us to take a proactive stance, to put forward a vision, our new, yet to be created collectively, plan for dealing with transitioning from this dominator society into one of partnership. This is going to take a leap of faith for all of us. Unity must be our guideline. We must get to the point where this is just about our humanity, where our humanity is primary and all of the things that we're doing outside of that, are completely secondary.

What we've got, and What We Need:


So straight up… The programs all the left have written are valuable as templates if tempered with more contemporary social understandings about our interpersonal workings.

To me it is the greatest present and historical failing of the left, to not understand how important knowledge of self is. I can never follow any person who I don't love and respect, and they really need to be together, perhaps having had worked on themselves and their emotional scrip for many years. Some people get it young and some never get it at all. It is the way it is. The left needs to begin to write into its language about living healthier lives in a more concrete way. This is an axiom if we ever hope to sustain a peaceful world.


This is radically idealistic, but failure to act on the most forward of ideas is tantamount to holding back oneself and one's community. Don't ever let anyone tell you you don't have the right to make the world a better place than when you came into it.

This is Marlin from Social Justice Television, November 12th, 2005 wishing us all luck and love.

Support Scan TV and Public Access Media

Scan TV provides a valueable public resource to the community by offfering ordinary people access to the media. Not only do they provide studios and equipmennt but they also provide training and support. Anyone can walk into Scan TV with an idea, attend free classes and start producung their own show. This has opened new horizons and opportunities for many people and provided the community with an eclectic mix of original programming from the absurd to informative. Most importantly it is media made by members of the local community for the local community. Shows like Social Justice TV would not be possible without this public accewss to media. Scan TV needs your support to stay on the air so support your local independent media and support Scan TV by attending their Fundraiser this Saturday at Columbia City Theatre.

SJTV Guests for Friday November 11th are NoSpray.org

This Friday will will be speaking with local members of the New York based National Coalition No Spray.Org

Local No Spray activists are Ballard/Magnolia citizens group opposed to the spraying, of Toxic Chemicals in urban environments and along with the Sierra Club, the Green Party, farmers at the Interbay P-patch, an organic community garden, and the Washington Toxics Coalition, oppposed three aerial spray applications of the pesticide Foray 48B over a one mile square area of Ballard and Magnolia to eradicate European and Asian gypsy moths. Foray 48B has a poor safety record. They're also worried that the identity of ingredients in the pesticide have not been disclosed, and that the state will not use a buffer zone when spraying near Salmon Bay.

for more information goto their website http://www.nospray.org and read the seattle press article at http://www.seattlepress.com/article-1744.html

Social Justice Television Editorial 10.28.05

Hello and welcome to SJTV. Today is October 28th 2005, I’m Marlin Hathaway here, with another SJTV editorial.


Well what can I say? Iraq is another imperial war. I feel that this war is no different than many other wars perpetrated over the last hundred, hundred-twenty-five years or so.

Those who would rule us all, who have recently seated themselves in the United States, have had an ever consumptive global agenda that spans many Administrations, Supreme Court's and Congressional and Senate houses.

Historically, this group of people whom I will now refer to as members of the controlling elite, have had self-serving nepotistic intentions, and have acted on them for hundreds and hundreds of generations.

To people like me, the war in Iraq represents the first step of this historic empire’s last attempt to rein in the forces that they fear are growing out of their control on economic and social grounds.
It’s about the power.

This is a last gasp, I believe anyway, I think the system of greed and socioeconomic control that these folks perpetuate through the institutions that they prop up, is coming to an end.

But of course this depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is the antiwar movement and the resistance that we can create.

The antiwar movement could be a force that might forestall the Empire in this attempt, at least as far as Iraq is concerned, to harness control of the Middle East oil fields.

But again, it is not enough to stop the war in Iraq. Although it is important for the current controlling elite to gain strategic military control of the Central Asian theater, and Iraq is a necessary part of that, what is important to note, is that the current posture of the controlling elite coupled with the geopolitical conditions in the Central Asian region, leads one to a wary conclusion that the controlling elite are in preparation for an eventual conflict and showdown with the other imperial forces of the world like China, Russia, and even potentially, the European Union.

But what I'm getting to here, is that the antiwar movement needs to become more dynamic, the stakes are more than about the war in Iraq, or issues regarding the Bush administration.

The administration, and the war, are symptoms of a system that has been in place for eight to ten thousand years.

We need to recognize this history as we’re building an antiwar resistance in the United States.

Failure to do so is shortsighted, and will allow our movement to be channeled into Mainstream politics, which is the arena of the controlling elite.

Just think of how following the Democratic Party in the run up to the 2004 elections effected the organizational base of the antiwar movement.

It zapped its energy.

Funneling activist energies into candidates campaigns, in a similar manner to what happened in the nineteen sixties.

There has never been democracy in the United States, only an illusion of it.

Enough lip service by the controlling elite to dupe the populace into an apathetic and controllable state.
Just this week the Governmental Accountability Office found major discrepancies in Ohio regarding Electronic Voting Machines.

It’s money and power that run our government, but that system’s time is running out.

This current controlling elite has set up an economic system that functions in a modality of boom and bust.

It’s called Capitalism.

It seeks ever-increasing profit by the exploitation of labor and the accumulation of capital.

When capital interests begin to dry up in a particular market, or when profits begin to dwindle, those with controlling capital interests attempt to take over other markets to maintain or increase their profitability, this is called Imperialism.

Currently the empirical modus operandi is to use a two-pronged approach of economic and military power, the IMF-World Bank, W.T.O., G-8, and International Trade Agreements like N.A.F.T.A., C.A.F.T.A. etc. on the one hand, and the other, the use of covert and overt private and governmental military forces.

Looking at the past, when the economic times got tough, the agreements started to fail, this lead to market conflicts that grew into regional and global wars between Monarchs, Capitalist, and Imperialist States.

This can happen again in the not-too-distant future, and can lead to world war.

Similar trade and political agreements have failed under heavy economic pressure in the past, and it looks as if most of the pieces are in place for it to happen soon.

So as I have said before, the war in Iraq, horrible as it is, is an indicator of the intention and direction of the controlling elite, and we within the antiwar movement must begin to grasp the totality of our situation, debate it, and the potentially radical solutions to our dilemma.

We in the United States are far behind in our collective understanding of the world we live in.

People all over the world are calling into question the system of domination and greed.

We here in the U.S. sit within the belly of the beast so to speak, and as such we have a pivotal role to play in not just ending the war in Iraq, but in ending the rule of the controlling elite who presently reside and base their operations here in our country.

Thank you for listening. I’m Marlin Hathaway for SJTV.

Weasels On Display!!!

On Monday October 17th I attended the Seattle City Council Candidates Forum on Racial Profiling and Housing at the Yesler Community Center. This was a community forum sponsored by many activist groups concerned with Police Brutality , Racial Profiling and lack of affordable housing and gentrification.

In one of the most shameful and revealing moments in an evening of what I like to call "Weasels on Display" the question was put to all the council members and new candidates running for office if they would simply support an elected civilian Police review board to replace the useless and impotent OPA orOffice of Public Accountability that we now have to over see Police conduct. To the shock and gasps of the audience in attendance every single council person and candidate except for one said they would not support such a review board or needed "more information".

Paul Bascomb who is running against council member Nick Licata for City Council Position 6 was the only person on the panel of candidates who showed he understood the purpose of the forum and the pain of victims of Police Repression and Abuse who testified at the forum by saying he would unequivocally supported civilian review over the Police Department.

Topping the List of Shame of Council members and candidates who would not support the review board is Seattle token Lefty Nick Licata. Based upon this most recent lapse in showing any political backbone I believe it is time for Nick Licata to go.

Finishing the list of Shame are:
Richard Conlin
Casey Corr
Jan Drago
Paige Miller
Richard McIver
Dwight Pelz

SJTV Guest for October 28th

Local members of World Can't Wait.org will join us to talk about their new Nov 2nd initative to begin bulding a resistance movement that can Drive Out the Bush Regime!!! Checkout their website and sign their call.

19 Days Until the Beginning of the End of the Bush Regime! Wednesday November 2, we launch a movement to Drive OUT this regime!

Friends: There is new reason every day that Bush and his whole crew should be driven from office. Bob Herbert, in the New York Times yesterday, referred to them as a "regime" and excoriated Bush for relentlessly punishing the victims in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. While the evidence piles up, the moment for us to act is NOW.



New Air America Radio Ads Resume Nationally Monday October 17...Funds Needed Immediately! In addition to the ad recorded by Jessica Blank, creator of "The Exonerated" for stage and HBO which ran last week, Boots Riley of The Coup, Koba of Kontrast, and Suheir Hammad, a poet nationally known from Def Poetry Jam on HBO have recorded ads that will run every hour next week on Air America.

With the Bush Regime engaging in new outrages every day, with our new website, and more plans being announced every day for November 2, the new ads will be even more influential and even more urgently necessary to make November 2 the mass repudiation of the Bush Regime that we need. We have plans to advertise on Comedy Central before November 2, which will take hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your donation -- and that of the friends you forward this email to -- will take responsibility for making this happen.



World Can't Wait Encampment at the White House: Today, October 14 The World Can't Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime is establishing an ENCAMPMENT in Lafayette park in front of the White House to serve notice that November 2, 2005 marks the beginning of the end of the Bush regime. The Countdown Encampment will bring in a rotating and growing crew - national voices of conscience-who will speak out on about why this regime must go. Over the 20 days, they will introduce themes that include: NO Theocracy; NO Genocide (a salute to the October 14/15 Millions More gathering on the Mall); NO Intolerance (a celebration of gay marriage); NO Forced Motherhood; NO Suppression of Science & Destruction of the Environment, and more. (schedule TBA). A Counter-Briefing will be held on-site everyday day at noon, where World Can't Wait representatives will deliver The Reason of the Day to drive out the Bush regime. Watch for webcast! "Join us! "in Washington through November 2.


We urge you to support and attend the first session of:
The 2005 International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration of the United States
"When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Friday, October 21, 6 pm, and Saturday, October 22, 10 am in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street, New York City

http://www.bushcommission.org/

SJTV Guest for Friday October 21st

Members of the October 22nd Coaltion will join us on Activist Spotlight to talk about their annual Protest against Police Brutality and give us an update on documented cases of Police Brutality here in the Emerald City.


the October 22nd Coalition will hold it’s 10th Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation October 22 (Saturday) at Westlake Park downtown Seattle 4th and Pine. Gather @ 12 noon. Rally at 1p.m March steps off at 2pm .

The National Day of Protest aims to "expose and oppose" the epidemic of police brutality. The book "Stolen Lives: killed by law enforcement" documents over 2,000 (out of our estimate of 8-10,000) cases of people killed by police, jail guards, etc. in the U.S. during the 1990s

(see http://www.stolenlives.org for details).Website for more info:http://october22-ny.org/national/ Contact Email:oct22seattle@hotmail.com Contact Ph. Number:206-264-5527

SJTV Guest for October 14th

SJTV speaks with local Activist lawyer Paul Richmond about the on-going development of a paramilitary police state in America.

Paul Richmond Formally schooled in film production (BFA, California Institute of the Arts, MFA, The American Film Institute), his later work has focused on independent and community-based media.

He arrived in Seattle in 1998 to attend UW Law School. While at school, he helped initiate the creation of the IMC and train hundreds of people to videotape police misconduct. He was a producer and consultant on the recently completed documentary “Urban Warrior.”

He has taught video and film production on a college level. He is currently an attorney in private practice and is on the Board of the Washington State Bar Association’s Young Lawyer’s Division, the WSBA’s Diversity Committee and the King County Bar’s Legislative Committee.


SJTV Editorial from Producer Marlin Hathaway.

Good evening and welcome to social justice television today is October 14, 2005. This week I would like to present to you to an editorial of sorts.
It seems the government, and the cronies behind them, are hell-bent on driving the working people of this country and the world into the ground. Their rapaciousness is only outdone by their seeming indifference and categorical denial of the needs of the people and our planet.
Meanwhile the 'left' here within the city of Seattle, and nationally, continue to have dysfunctional communication and organizational structures, rendering them insufficient to handle the coming crisis.

This is leading me to the conclusion that short of a mass mobilization of revolutionary thinkers organizing for systemic change in a radically new and advanced manner, and I mean like mobilizing tomorrow or the next day, that the time has come to consider self-exile, or going underground, to escape the coming police state.

Now having said that, I'm not suggesting that we all scramble north to Canada or anything. But if I'm thinking this way, and others that I know are also thinking in this manner, and judging from the past I mean really, looking at the rise of Nazi Germany in particular, the writing is on the wall, all of us are saying it, and it's just a matter of time before it actually comes into being.
Looking at New Orleans, it seems obvious to me that we are approaching a totalitarian state, and Katrina or rather, the ruling class’s response to Katrina, leaves no doubt in my mind that our rulers don't give a shit about the working people of this country or anywhere else in the world.

Scarier still, looking at the way the neo-cons are fracturing even within the Republican Party, in particular looking at the most recent senate vote of 90 to 9 promoting language against torture, which Bush threatens to veto, the Miers nomination, and all the inquiries, supeanas and indictments…

These are all classic examples of a split within the neo conservative wing of the ruling class, and I don't think that there's going to be any reckoning between these constituencies soon. In fact they're probably going to worsen.

I mean, the thing to worry about is really what element of the ruling class does the Bush agenda represent? Who is in the seat of power? Are these the people who understand the need to sometimes the throw the workers more crumbs so they don't lose the whole enchilada… the ones to give us the new deal, some semblance of civil rights, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam War?

I think not.

Remember, Bush is going to use the military to quarantine vast sections of the country. This is their solution for quelling dissent in the near future. They are reviewing plans for mobile detention camps to compliment the 600 camps already in place. Their strategy is to suppress, not compromise.

I think this is the cadre that feels that the world is their oyster and that they have moved far too slowly and allowed too many potential riches to slip through their fingers.
These people feel that the Clintonesc neo liberals were too slow, in particular after the fall of the Soviet Union, allowing potential economic competitors to gain footholds and exploit markets that these neo conservatives feel that they have a manifest destiny to control.

They feel that we workers have become to entitled, to bold in our asking for things like eight hour work days, social security, universal healthcare and other basic commons. To these thugs, we aren’t deserving of these social resources and rights because it infringes on their potential profit.

Now I know I'm verging on hyperbole, and the dogmatic style of my youth is coming out as I begin to scream, like a subway repentor with a signboard on his chest stating the end is near, but I have something serious to say, the end IS near, and we better get off our asses!
Brothers and Sisters of Seattle, we really need to review our inaction or the shortsightedness of our political actions. We can no longer afford to take the roads afforded us by these neocons and neo libs. We have to be more critical of this system of indoctrination and exploitation. The world can’t wait for our rulers and puppet leaders to come around to the truth that this system is bankrupt and isn’t working for the vast majority of us on the planet.

We can’t ask the Ruling Class to review its modus operendi, they don’t give a shit about anything except their own welfare. It would be like asking a Mafia Don to review the use of strong arming to exert pressure on the locals, it just isn’t in their paradigm.

Every time we write, call or protest, we are asking the ruling class to listen, respond or act on our behalf. But history shows us that they only act if they feel so threatened as to possibly lose their stranglehold on power. It was just such pressure that forced them to cough up the new deal, women’s rights, and fictitious democratic freedoms.

But what I’m trying to say here is… Is that this cadre of Imperial thugs aren’t of the stock of ruling class that understands the need to give up a little power to retain ultimate control.
They are of the stock that solves its conflicts with force, fear and lies. And today they are isolated. They are isolated from the American people, they are Isolated from the people of the world, and everyday they grow more isolated from their traditional allies among the Ruling Class. Today in America, they are growing more isolated from their own constituency within the republican party.

Some see this trend as a sign of the Bush Agenda’s weakness, and it is, but it is also an ominous sign of these thugs becoming more desparate, and like a desparate animal, they are beginning to feel backed into a corner, and like a cornered, wounded, desparate animal, they will use everything in their arsenal of power to survive, because this cadre of thugs knows no other way, than the way or force, fear and lies.

I live in two states now, outrage and fear. I know what will happen if I let my fear rule me. I don’t act, I capitulate. So the conclusion I have come to is this. If we don’t organize and act to repudiate the Bush Agenda, capitalism and oppression now, today, we are truly doomed to live or die in a new fascist state. If we can organize quickly, you will see me there, but if we can’t..?
If we’re lucky, we’ll see each other in the mountains, or Canada. If not, I’ll see you in the camps. If I live that long. What else can I say?

Highlights of Sept 30th Show

Michael returns from The United for Peace and Justice and ANSWER Rally in Washington D.C. (Sept 24-26th) to give us a report on what really happened and what didn't get covered by the mainstream media.

Report: I arrived in Washington D.C. on Tuesday September 20th to prepare to cover what would be the largest Ant-War Rally in Washington D.C. Since the Vietnam War. Not suprisingly the corporate owned mainstream media provided almost no meaningful coverage of the three days of protests and anti-war events and chose to parrot official police estimates of small crowds when in fact the crowd swelled to approximately 250,000 -300,00 at the height of the protest on Saturday Sept 26th. The streets were so filled with protestors that it took more than two hours for the marchers in the rear to start moving along the route that would take them by the White House. The crowd was lively but peaceful with only a handful of arrests reported which is pretty amazing for a crowd that size.

I spoke with many participants who indicated that this was their first protest experience and what compelled them into action were the failed policies of the Bush Regime in Iraq and the recent callous incomptetency and criminal neglect and mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and of the poor in New Orleans.

On Monday Sept 26th 11:00 a.m. EST, 400 dedicated activists, from various groups, surrounded the White House and sent representatives to the Secret Service Checkpoint to ask to speak with the President. Upon being rejected they moved forward in waves in an act of civil disobedience to attach the names of dead soldiers and civilians killed in the Iraq War on the gate of the White House. Others protested the ban on sitting in the "post card zone"( a nine foot area in front the gate where no one is allowed to sit and must remain in motion at all times) by sitting on ths sidewalk or kneeling down to pray for peace. Members of the Not In Our Name Project succesfully chained a large Eviction Notice to the White House Gate demanding that Bush vacate the White House immediately.

One protestor climbed over the White House fence but was quickly dragged off and out of sight by White House Security Agents as a chant of "a liar a coward say it a little louder" rose up from the visibly agitated crowd and filled the air. Mounted Polcie moved in as a security fence was erected to separate the crowd and Police buses were postioned to block the view of the fate arrestees. Among those arested were Professor and noted author Cornel West, Medea Benjamin from Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan and numerous soldiers from Vets for Peace in full uniform. The days action adhered to it's non-violent principles with no injured parties reported except maybe the Consitution and Bill of Rights.

The arrests started around 1:00 p.m. and ended around 5:00 p.m. as over 400 hundred people were taken into custody and transported to the White House Park Police detention facility in Anacostia ( a remote region in South East D.C. where the rich and powerful warehouse the mostly poor African American population). Detainees were charged with disorderly conduct and kept on buses handcuffed for over eight hours. This was a test case to see if D.C. Police force and other law enforcement agencies would adhere to new regulations imposed them as result of lawsuits regarding mistreament of arrestees in their care.

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